Thursday 22 November 2012

Malifaux Battle Report - Seamus vs Mei Feng





Making up for my dismal and rather surreal weekend of work, I decided to sneak in a game at one my local clubs last night. This wasn't to well received by the Misses, but brownie points are meant to be squandered and she knows, from my track record, that I need the practice to get ready for Cancon and the GT next year.

Pre Game Amble
This was my third game against Mei Feng, so I had some idea of her tactics and I wanted to try out some different models that should give me some advantage in the fight.

This was Chris's first outing with Mei Feng, that said he's a very experienced player, and so I figured the odds were at best 50/50.

I think Mei Feng's greatest weakness is she doesn't have any magical weapons and only she and Kang really have any real attack spells. Most of her minions work on the basis of gimping up their defense or normal attacks. You're also generally facing a 50/50 split between living and construct models, allowing for some terror raising possibilities right off the bat.

It struck me that Kirai should do well against this crew, but I'm still getting my head around how she plays. I decided instead to test the water by taking a spirit in my Seamus crew and seeing how things went. I wanted to try a drowned specifically to see if it did any better against a Rail Gamin, but when I got there Chris put down a crew completely devoid of them. Doh!

Strategies and Schemes
Encounter Size : 25ss
Deployment : Standard
Strategies : Shared Treasure Hunt
Opponents Schemes : Stake a Claim, Bodyguard
My Schemes : Framed for Murder (Drowned), Bodyguard

Crew Selections
Me
Seamus
Graveyard Spirit
Madame Sybelle
Crooked Man
Rotten belle
Drowned

8 SS cache

My Opponent
Mei Feng
Kang
3 x Rail Workers
Emberling

5 SS Cache

Pre-Game Theory Hammer
Avoid rail walker movement schinanigans by snipping any rail worker or gamin that looks like its being pushed forward for that purpose. Try and cut off Mei Feng so she can't retreat, if she sticks her head out.

Link up Seamus for some extra protection from the graveyard spirit.

Try the drowned out against anything.

Try out some terror tactics with Seamus.

Use the Belle lure to net me that treasure in turn 1.


The Game
Turn 1
Chris won initiative and double walked up a rail worker. I activated Sybelle and a belle with the intention of luring a belle onto that treasure. Sybelle doubled walked but then choked the call belle spell with a black joker. The belle walked and the cast lure on Sybelle to pull her back in a little and avoid getting her killed in turn 1.

Chris moved up the Emberling and blew steam before rail walking Mei Feng up to do 2 wounds on Madame Sybelle and then hightailing it back behind Kang.

The rest of our crews just doubled walked to close the gap. I linked the graveyard spirit to Seamus for some protection.


Turn 2
I won initiative and with an Emberling blocking my path I figured Id kill that and try to alpha onto that treasure again. I flurried Sybelle but only managed to take the Emberling down two wounds. I then called my belle up but decided to place her for some protection on Sybelle rather than place on the treasure. Seamus shot a rail worker and when that failed charged him, killing him with a bag of tools strike. As a zero action I tried for arise but failed to get it off.

Mei Feng and Kang retaliated killing the foremost belle, and injuring Sybelle again. Seamus took 3 wounds from Mei Feng's trigger attack before retreating again using rail walker. With little to target the crooked man tried but missed a second rail worker and the drowned got two wounds off against Kang.

I burnt a soulstone increasing Seamus defence against a parting steam burst from Mei Feng.

Turn 3
Chris wins the initiative despite me burning a soulstone and heals Kang before shoving coals in Sybelles face. He then punches her for good measure, reducing her to 2 wounds. In retailiation a belle tries twice to get Kang to undress but fails, which means Sybelle has her work cut out for her and can't do more than score a couple of wounds on Kang.

Mei Feng in her most aggressive moves of the game goes hard at Seamus doing 8 wounds despite burning two more soulstones. Crucially she doesn't retreat because her crew are out of position. Seamus in return smacks her for 3 before getting slit jugular off and forcing Chris to discard his last two soulstones.




The crooked man is able to get a severe cave in off and kill another rail worker, which helps Seamus with his dwindling wounds.

Turn 4
Chris again wins initiative and blows steam on Feng to deposit burning tokens on almost all of my crew. She bounces away leaving Seamus on 1 wound. She gets into contact with the treasure and sends Kang and the last rail worker forward to block the limited alley I have to the objective.



With Sybelle and my belle bouncing off and then being eradicated by Kang in hand to hand, Seamus summons another belle, and focus shoots the rail worker, taking him out but leaving Seamus relatively weak and undefended, with no soulstones left.

Turn 5
Chris wins a critical initiative flip.

Kang goes toe to toe with Seamus and kills him. Mei Feng picks up the treasure and tries to stumble off. A belle lures her into dropping the treasure and my crooked man and drowned again bounce off of Kang.

Turn 6
With Mei Feng uninjured but unable to pickup the treasure Chris high tails it over to the cemetery he'd called for his stake a claim and nets himself a total of 4 VP'S. I bounce again off of Kang doing some damage but with Seamus dead and my drowned still very much live, I've scored zero. I tried to make it to the treasure but I simply didn't have the AP's to pick it up.




The Result
4-0 loss to me. Chris got off both his schemes but my lure made Mei Feng drop the treasure, stopping it being a 8-0 defeat for me!

Sum up & Lessons Learnt
In hindsight the graveyard spirit is a waste against Mei Feng, most of her abilities bypass the protection that the spirit provides.

Kang is a tank! He needs to be taken down early as he can heal wounds automatically up to the turn number, so in turn 5 he can heal 5 wounds!

Watch out for rail worker slow to die actions, their retailitory kick can kill a wounded minion.

I've got to stop announcing bodyguard on Seamus, it makes him a bullet magnet!

Maybe I shouldn't of announced frame for murder and I should have chosen a weaker minion, a 5 wound spirit was a dumb selection.

That's why I'm the Aspiring Ressurrectionist I suppose!

2 comments:

  1. great report! I used to live in Perth before moving to California and played at that store in London Court... I forgot the name

    ReplyDelete
  2. Welcome mate, you must mean Tactics in London Court. Yes it's still there, nothing changes in Perth. So are you a Resser or a Ten Thunders, or maybe even both?

    ReplyDelete